VFCast Season 4 Episode 4: Dollar Theatre Special: Pacific Rim

I hear you, Rainbow Dash. I feel that way every Friday night. I am awesome, but none of the fillies that hang out around my cloud want to talk to me, either. That might be because I call them “fillies.”

I am so very over the hard demographic delineation of certain things being “for” one group of people or another. Batman is not “for” little boys, nor is my little pony “not for” men 20-35. Good art is good art. Engaging writing can be targeted but people outside your target demographic are gonna love it. The loudest example of this, in geek culture of late, is the attack on “fake geek girls.”

The fact that Bronies are not accused of being “fake MLP fans,” illuminates the hypocrisy of geek culture’s entrenched misogyny. This (mostly) white, (definitionaly) male move into an assumedly female dominated fandom has elicited a few chuckles here and there, a little bit of gender baiting, but overwhelmingly Bronies have been welcomed with open arms by MLP’s established adult fan base. The Insecure Masculine assumes it is welcome anywhere its gaze decides to fall, but recoils in hate, fear, and loathing at the “invasion” of its “protected spaces” by outsiders (geek girls).

I’m not saying Bronies shouldn’t love what they love, or even that any individual Bronie is consciously pulling tools out of their napsack in order to feel more comfortable about their chosen passion. I would never tell someone that their love of a “kids” TV show for girls makes them less of a man. I would however ask male geekdom, particularly white male geekdom to offer the same welcoming hand to non-white, non-male fans of video games, superheroes, and miniatures, that their bronie brethren have received. Rage won’t make you happy, and exclusion won’t make your hobby or passion better. I’ll likely keep talking about this as long as there continues to be problems reported at cons, so if your a fan of our podcast be awesome rather than an asshole and we can talk about something else!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Plastic Flowers – “Fog Song” and Talk Less, Say More – “Black Eyes”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.